Ryan Farrag accuses Marcel Braithwaite of going missing

Ryan Farrag has announced that his rematch with Marcel Braithwaite is off. 

The former European bantamweight champion took to Facebook to announce that he is now looking for a new opponent for the November 15 date and blasted the talented but frustrating Braithwaite for ‘going missing’.

Earlier this year, Braithwaite, 17-4-1 (2 KOs), was mandated to defend his British super flyweight belt against Brandon Daord but vacated the title to concentrate on a rematch with another Liverpool rival, Farrag, 22-5 (6 KOs).

Last June, the two put on an exciting, hard fought battle for the Commonwealth title with Braithwaite taking the narrowest of decision victories. 

A lot has happened since that night. Braithwaite went on to win the British title by knocking out Ijaz Ahmed and then traveled to South Africa where he was outboxed by the IBO super flyweight champion, Ricardo Malajika.

In June, 36-year-old Farrag eventually won the Commonwealth title by beating Quaise Khademi and the way seemed clear for a real crossroads battle between the city rivals.

It wasn’t to be and, if Farrag’s post is anything to go by, the fight seems unlikely to be revisited. 

The social media post read: “Due to my opponent pulling out and not being able to find a replacement to fight for the ibo intercontinental or defend my commonwealth title I will only be fighting 8 rounds on the show, not only myself but my family and my team have made big sacrifices for this fight and for my opponent to just ‘go missing’ is completely disrespectful in my opinion and he should never box again, I feel sorry for whoever they put in front of me cos I’m gonna take it all out on him.”